June Brides

Yes, yes, I know, the errant in me is silently creeping in to post an utterance to my diminishing band of readers who have all but abandoned me, as I have them. Forgive me, but I will make my new endeavors known shortly. In the interim, a bit of art to soothe the brow of the cultural wars that divide us. Lest you thought this to be a personal announcement of the Errant Aesthete’s upcoming nuptials … well, yea of momentous imagination!

Before the month of June of 2012, leaves us to the annals of history, an enchanting, and in these times, controversial, cover from first-time contributor, Gayle Kabaker, for the New Yorker commemorating a year of marriage equality in New York. Chosen from the blog, Blown Covers, also known as ‘New Yorker covers you were never meant to see,’ the story of the pick for the June 25 cover is, clearly, far gentler than the feedback.

The magazine’s art editor, Françoise Mouly, found the image through her Blown Covers blog. Every week, Mouly hosts a cover contest on the blog, open to all, with themes that closely mirror those she suggests to her regular contributors, from Father’s Day to books to the theme that reeled this image in: weddings. Kabaker is the first artist to make the leap from blog to cover.

“I live in the Berkshires, so I do almost all of my work online,” Kabaker said. “It’s a big deal, getting on the cover. … Françoise told me not to tell my mother until the issue actually went to press, because things could change,” she added. “I didn’t want to say that my mother’s dead—but I know she’d be very proud of me.”

I had thought to end this lovely little anecdote with that warm sentiment on the artist’s deceased mother, but the bliss of brides and weddings is not only a political war, but one of gender as well, as evidenced in this email to the New Yorker on their depiction of marriage:

“Why isn’t there a gay male couple on the cover of New Yorker magazine? You guys seem to have a habit of avoiding showing gay male couples on the cover of your magazine. This is not going down well with the gay male community and has been criticized on popular gay websites like towleroad. Perhaps New Yorker is not the gay-friendly magazine it claims to be. All in all, this selective homophobia on the part of New Yorker magazine is one of the reasons why I and my gay male friends won’t be voting for Obama.”

A more reasonably seasoned soul noted, “Really? You and your friends are going to vote for Mitt Romney because of a New Yorker cover?”

So, it would seem. How banal and predictable we are. How rabid and quick triggered our responses, how shallow and sluggish our thinking.

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10 Responses to “June Brides”

I cannot comment on anything this silly. I think the illustration is lovely but, for me, it looks like a bride & bridesmaid. But, you see, I’m in Texas. And, I don’t think any of your faithful followers have abandoned you, I think it’s vice-versa, don’t you? You are always welcome in my blog-life X10.

Oy vey! That guy’s stupid email to the New Yorker boggles the mind! I, among your loyal readers, appreciate your return to the ‘sphere, and look forward to your further missives if and when you choose to grace us with them. Reggie

Anatomie de l'elégance

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In Praise of Silence

Gerald & Sara Murphy

Our Lady of the Ladle

Fashionably Snowed

A Life of Hats

Pantheon of Aesthetes

Sir or Madam?

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Maligned

Have You No Shame

Eric Baker on Design

As I bounce around online looking for images I always look for the extraordinary, the esoteric, the naive, and the emblematic of a time; works that are not the pieces we often see in design history books.

Just as a map helps us find our way and shows us where we are, looking at design from years past helps us better understand the trajectory contemporary design has taken. DesignObserver.

Invincible Summer

The Thoughtful Traveler

Poires de Vacances

Fawning for Fame

Inhabit

Peter Lippmann

Words, Wars, Weddings

Past Imperfect

Swoon Worthy

The Excellence of Habit

Irving Penn

The Epitome of Grace

Mad About Hats

The novelist Alison Lurie wrote:
“Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of the mind beneath it.”

Stephen Jones, the greatest milliner of his generation, disagrees.

“Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of what a person would like to be."

Cecil Beaton

Cocktail Hour

A Bow Unbent

Solitary Walking

Desired Things

Patricia Gray

Post Wisdom

Reflections

“The golden moments
in the stream of life
rush past us
and we see nothing
but sand.

The angels
come to visit us,
and we only know them
when they are gone.”

NOIR ET BLANC

Bert Stern

George Hoyningen-Huene

Luc Dratwa

Horst P. Horst

Richard Avedon

Peter Lindbergh

Lillian Bassman

Mary Ellen Mark

Edward Steichen

Eudora Welty

Michael Magill

Michael Kenna

Unexplained Absences

L'Incident de Chanel

“I’d Rather Go Naked
Than Wear Fake Chanel”

Following her counterfeit faux pas, the culture’s rebellious “bad girl” Courtney Love has been granted a reprieve by Karl Lagerfeld’s court. Fortunately, the iconic rock star is now decidedly back in fashion.

EX LIBRIS

The Age of Innocence

In this classic novel of old New York,
Edith Wharton recreates the city
of her girlhood in the 1870s.
The Arion edition has been illustrated
with photographs of the actual settings
of the story.

“Truly a thing of beauty”
according to Forbes magazine,
this edition celebrates a classic of American literature.
The book has a special status
as an affectionate record
of the streets and buildings
of New York City.
At every moment of the novel
the reader knows where the characters are,
walking down a particular street,
standing in front of a certain address,
looking out the window of a
familiar room.

The Arion Press edition
is illustrated with images
of the novel's actual setting,
as they are today,
captured by noted photographer Stephen Shore
who brought to this project
a personal knowledge
of the historic buildings and streets
that made up Wharton's New York world.

New York Times art critic
Michael Kimmelman raved:
"The work’s laconic eloquence
speaks of an era and a nation."

The Kindle

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon's sickly serene Self Portrait 1971 is a refracted faceted face akin to some of Paul Cézanne's self-portraits which are reminiscent of cut precious gem stones reflecting light. Bacon painted with a very dry brush giving the sensation of a granular, grainy effect.

The melancholia mood is of a man melting before you: a disturbing image of a disturbed man in a disturbed century. This is one of the last great self-portraits Bacon painted before he went off the rails and went back into to the lazy worn grooves of inane illustration.

Wallace Berman

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